Sinking Down, Part 1

"I guess I'll have to stay here until I recover." I told Toma.

For some unknown reason, I got a high fever and had to stay home for today. "Yeah, just rest for today. I left your lunch on the table, just heat it in the microwave later."

"Okay. Make sure to listen in class and take notes for me."  Though I doubt he'll do a good job on that. Toma has always been a terrible student, I was always there to help him with school work.

"Hnnng, I'll do anything for you even if I can't stand boring stuff."

"Great, have a good day!" I waved goodbye at him. And once he was out of the room, I felt a bit anxious with him out of sight. Maybe I'm scared of getting seperated from him just like he feels. I really have grown attach to him, huh?

A smile crossed my face as I remember the first time I met him. I was really a dull kid back then, I have no idea how I'll ever make friends. And then one day, the Toma moved in at our neighborhood and became my first friend ever.

"Oh hey." A kid taller than I am approached me. I didn't like him because he had bruises on his arms and legs, making me think that he's a trouble child. I ignored him and kept playing on my own at the playground, but he was annoyingly following me. "Hi, I just moved here!" He cheerfully said, really trying to catch my attention.

"Hmp." I just continued to drag my toy cars on the ground. Then it was getting bothersome when he kept on talking to me. "I'm Tomakawa Hiroyuki, 9 years old! What about you?"

"Err, can't you just leave me alone? I don't want to talk to you."

"Eh?! So mean."

I moved away from him so that he'll leave me alone but he was awfully stubborn and got back to my side again. "Come on, let's be friends and play!"

"Tch. I don't want to be friends with someone like you, you're a bad kid who gets into trouble a lot. And I don't like bad kids."

His heads tilts in confusion. "I'm a… bad kid? How am I bad?"

I pointed to his arms and legs. "You're full of bruises, who knows what bad things you do? So go away from me."

His cheerful face slowly turned upside down, though he looks like he's stopping himself from crying. "You're really mean. I didn't want this on my arms and legs, you know."

"Then how did you even got those?"

"It doesn't matter, no one ever believes me anyway." He sadly walk away and it made me feel bad. Well, he just wanted to make friends and never done anything wrong… I was really mean to push him so harshly like that.

Before he can get out of the playground, I chased and stopped him from going away. "Geez, fine! We can play."

"Really?!"

"Yeah!" After that, I had fun and agreed on meeting him at the playground during weekends and play together. I didn't realized soon that he already became a dear friend to me.